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The lawyer told the jurors they have to decide only one question: Whether Gregson was in a fit mental state to know that his attack on Czapnik could have caused his death.

“This is not like Hollywood or like a lot of other trials,” said Fleming. “The defence has not attacked Crown evidence or witnesses. We have accepted it largely unchallenged.”

Where the Crown and defence do disagree, he said, is on the central issue of whether Gregson’s only aim was to get a police officer’s gun, go home and shoot himself.

The Crown maintains Gregson had no intention of committing suicide and was only interested in creating a spectacle that would embarrass the RCMP, which had suspended him and stopped his salary.

Before leaving for the hospital the night he stabbed Czapnik, Gregson made a real attempt on his own life, missing “one and possibly two serious blood vessels by a millimetre.

“His life was definitely in jeopardy, whether he was trying to kill himself or not,” said Fleming.

Gregson’s own statement that he killed Czapnik but didn’t murder him was a “brutal” statement, said the lawyer, but a truthful one.

Gregson was “taken by his depression and his suicidal inclinations,” he added.

In his closing argument, Crown prosecutor Brian Holowka called Gregson a “narcissist” who is unquestionably guilty.

“I don’t have to persuade you,” he told the jury, “because the evidence speaks clearly and loudly that Mr. Gregson is inescapably guilty of the charges. You have proof beyond any doubt.”

Holowka quoted Gregson from the day of his arrest when he told an officer, “I came here looking for a fight. You city cops are tough.”

But it wasn’t a fight, said the prosecutor.

“It was a brutal attack. Ireneusz (Eric) Czapnik was murdered while performing his duties as a police officer,” he said.

“Kevin Gregson is a narcissist with an inflated sense of his own abilities,” said Holowka. “It is no exaggeration that he was confident in his ability with a knife. This explains why he took a knife to a gunfight.”

Gregson was out of work, broke and he had to borrow rent money from his father.

He was also facing allegations of sexually assaulting a child — allegations that mean there would be no way back into the RCMP for him.